Ahead of SCOTUS Hearing, Davis Accuses Durbin of Coverup of Jackson’s Advocacy for Leniency for Child Sexual Predators

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the eve of the first day of Supreme Court nomination hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Article III Project (A3P) Founder and President Mike Davis released the following statement.

“The Senate must perform its critical constitutional duty to rigorously vet the nominee’s background, like any other Supreme Court nominee, to ensure she is qualified for a lifetime appointment on the highest court in America. This includes a thorough review of her record as a law student, lawyer, and judge. But Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the official tasked with running the Senate’s vetting operation, has made the constitutional duty of all senators impossible to fulfill by refusing a routine and narrow request granting access to Judge Jackson’s records from 2010-13 as the Vice Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission, a governmental body that recommends to Congress and federal judges the appropriate sentencing ranges for federal crimes.”

“Durbin’s denial of this routine and narrow request was puzzling, as Judge Jackson has highlighted her Sentencing Commission service as one of her key qualifications for promotion to the Supreme Court of the United States. It wasn’t a request for her Sentencing Commission records as a staff attorney from 2003-05 or after she became a federal judge and remained as Vice Chair in 2014. So why are Democrats hiding her record? Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) released bombshell Senate Judiciary Committee research that Judge Jackson has a 25-year history of advocating for leniency for convicted sexual predators. Jackson argued nearly 25 years ago in her Harvard Law School published legal note that sex offender registries for convicted sexual predators are (somehow) essentially unconstitutionally punitive. In her four years as the Vice Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, she championed reducing sentences for those convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography, even arguing that they are not even pedophiles; they are, according to Jackson, essentially technologists looking for a sense of community.

“Here’s the bigger problem for Democrats: If Judge Jackson is publicly advocating for this at her public U.S. Sentencing Commission hearings, just imagine how she maneuvered behind the scenes as a staff attorney and as the Vice Chair to coddle these monsters who preyed on kids. Judge Jackson’s views on the appropriate punishment for sexual predators of kids is certainly fair game under the Schumer, Durbin, or any other vetting standard. Durbin must reverse his decision and allow senators to access Judge Jackson’s records on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Senators must demand this access, or they are failing their constitutional duty to vet this nominee to a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land. What is Judge Jackson hiding?”

Since the beginning of the confirmation process, Article III Project has been on top of the research into Judge Jackson’s record. Recent A3P research went in depth on Judge Jackson’s troubling past on rulings and proposed sentencing reform involving sex offenders. A3P has also launched two sets of digital ads targeting Democratic leadership for hypocrisy on diversity in the judiciary, along with calling for Senators Schumer and Durbin to step down to be replaced by Black women.

The Article III Project (A3P) was founded by veteran GOP operative and attorney Mike Davis, who, after helping win the Senate confirmation battles of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, developed the reputation as a “take-no-prisoners conservative eager to challenge the left with hardball tactics,” as reported in The New York Times. A3P defends constitutionalist judges, punches back on radical assaults on judicial independence (like court-packing) and opposes judicial and other nominees who are outside of the mainstream.

Davis previously served as Chief Counsel for Nominations to Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and led the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and a record number of circuit court judges.